I'm not a believer, but...

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:

 

for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky;

and for everything
which is natural

which is infinite

 which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:

and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

 

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

  i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

                                              

                                        e e cummings

Buds and Bugs

As nature is slowly reborn, so did my blog start breathing again. Taking advantage of a much-awaited Easter break, we took to the hills in search of signs of spring. 

Unfortunately, we haven't had truly nice weather since...oh, I don't know, August lat year? Ever since then, it has been either snowy or rainy or bitterly cold or gloomy or all at once. Yesterday was no different, but we decided to brave the rain come what may. What do you know, we survived :)

 

I remember this time last year it was already warm enough to lie on the grass, but at the moment the hills still look asleep:

 

However, we did find some of the signs of spring we had been looking for:

The discoveries even included some bugs I had never seen the likes of in my life. As the experienced entomologist that I am, I proceeded to categorise and name them. Thus, I give you discovery no.1, the brass bug:

Given the activity I caught this one in the middle of, it should have been called a bonkbug, but I thought that didn't sound too scientific. So I settled for "gunmetal bug". Yes, its colour was just like in the picture:

The rest of the day was all buds, rain and ravens (the latter not pictured, the former very much photographed).

Yes, I think we're onto something here: a very mild case of spring, albeit with a risk of full eruption and serious contagiousness in the near future.

Indian Summer in Transylvania

There's something magical about the light in September. It has a unique way of making the usual seem warmer, calmer, more enchanting. It adds a new glowing dimension even to things that were beautiful before.

We've had many such honey-coloured days this September. And last Sunday's spontaneous outing to Cheile Turzii proved to be brilliantly (un)planned on just such a day.

Getting there bright and early, we had the paths all to ourselves while we leisurely walked the length of the gorge. 

Trying to find a nice wall to climb was only a tough job because there are so many! In such beautiful spots! 

But by the time the noisy tourists came and filled the gorge, we were already hanging by our fingertips high above them.

 It was a great day in all respects. But it seems that someone before us wasn't so lucky...
 

 And just to convince you of the magical properties of September's sunlight, here is another gratuitous forest shot:

Newsflash

As soon as it got warm, I got ants in my food cupboard. As it usually happens with ants, they don't get killed or put off by the stuff that should deter them; au contraire, they come back for seconds.

Last Friday, a pipe burst in my bathroom. The bathroom got filled and overflowed into the kitchen, which got filled and overflowed both into the hallway and outside, down the stairs into the courtyard. Wearing my beautiful fluffy slippers in ankle-deep water is not so cosy. But at least I'm hoping all the water might have drowned the ants.

It took me and the landlady a good couple of hours to mop up all the water and get the carpet off the floor (and the furniture off the carpet) for drying. As soon as the kitchen floor was dry, the dog came in and peed on it.

Ah, the little joys of life!

(above is an unrelated but recent pic of me from Easter in the forest with family and friends)